San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) reports that 20.8% of the electricity delivered to its retail customers in 2011 was provided by renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydropower.
According to SDG&E, this is the utility's largest single-year increase in renewable energy in proportion to overall power sales – a 9% jump from its 2010 results. In 2010, the company reported renewable energy deliveries representing a total of about 12% of its retail sales.
The 9% increase was due to the delivery of wind power and geothermal energy agreements. Of the overall 20.8% in retail renewable energy sales, geothermal, biomass, biogas and solar projects accounted for almost 40% of the power. The remaining 60% of this total can be attributed to wind power.
In 2011, SDG&E signed 17 new power contracts, mostly with wind and solar developers, representing almost 1.5 GW. These contracts put SDG&E in a position to maintain California's 20% renewable portfolio requirements in the 2011 to 2013 time frame and achieve the 25% renewable power requirement by 2016. The utility says it is on track to meet the state's 33% by 2020 mandate.
